‘It will bring best out of him as a player…’ – Mark Boucher on replacing Rohit Sharma as Mumbai Indians skipper ahead of IPL 2024

Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher has recently opened up about the reason why Hardik Pandya has replaced Rohit Sharma as the new skipper ahead of IPL 2024. Notably, Hardik Pandya has been appointed as the skipper after being traded by the Gujarat Titans due to his successful stint with GT in the IPL 2022 and IPL 2023.

The South African batter revealed that it was purely a cricketing decision. In addition to that, the legendary cricketer believes that the decision will bring the best out of Rohit Sharma as a player this time and that he will be able to score the runs for the team.

“I think it was purely a cricketing decision. We saw the window period to get Hardik Pandya back as a player. I think it’s just more of a cricketing decision that was made, and I do think it is going to bring the best out of Rohit as a person and as a player. Just let him go out and enjoy and score some good runs,” Mark Boucher said on the Smash Sports podcast.

One thing I did pick up with Rohit Sharma is that he is a fantastic guy: Mark Boucher

However, Mark Boucher accepted that Rohit Sharma has been one of the best skippers who helped MI become one of the most successful franchises in IPL history. The 47-year-old cricketer reveals that Rohit Sharma didn’t have a great season with the franchise with the bat in the past few seasons but acknowledged that he was the best as the captain.

“One thing I did pick up with Ro (Rohit) is that he is a fantastic guy. I mean he’s been captaining for ages, and he’s done really well for Mumbai Indians. Now he also leads India as well. It is that he walks into a place and there are just cameras in it, and he’s so busy, and he hasn’t had probably the best couple of seasons of late with the bat, but he’s done well as a captain,” he added further.